TubaOrNotTuba

Something new to learn every day. I have been living with the weather station for about two decades or more and I thought I knew most of its tricks. Today however I found the belly of the beast full of water. Let me explain. There is a rain gauge into which fresh rain falls think of it as an inverted cone. At the bottom a small hole. And this is where the problem arose for some reason the rain did not flow out the last time. It’s simply collected in the cone and when I went down to check on things, I found that I had a pot of water. No big deal. I made the mechanism flush and I listened to the tick tock of the drips falling down on the little measuring tool inside the box. Out of sight out of mind of course. But I have to mention this is the first time in two decades that I’ve had to do such a thing. I do not know what actually was in the hole at the bottom. It could be a seed or an insect or something worse. It is gone now, and I will check that cone from time to time. More thing to worry about. I keep hoping as I get older that there will be less things to fret over but that would be hoping for too much. In any case if you’re one of the people is from watching my rainfall and it seems a little odd that’s the reason the next time it rains perhaps overnight you will get an updated exact reading because the instrument is exact when it works and very very inexact when it doesn’t. I could have collected that water for other purposes but instead I let it fall on the ground somebody will profit from that or something I live in nature. And we are not in a drought season by any means

I miss the good old days. Back when stormy weather meant a snowstorm that could keep you to school for a day or two. Back when bad water meant to warm. I agree I have been lucky I have known a lifetime without war or pestilence or any of the other things that made history so interesting. But I still worry. About a year ago we had our first face to face with the hurricane. A real one. And now any possibility of something like that causes stress. There is a storm coming. Almost a week away and we do not know if it will come this way or just close by the stress is real. I have things I’d like to do with my life but right now I mean what people call a holding pattern waiting to see what happens next. And that whole waiting thing is not good. Yes I miss the old days when the risk was snowstorm was the biggest thing in my life. And there will be other snowstorms. Probably in the next few months. But until then I have to wait for what the forecast people say will happen or not happen. Funny how they get away with that. Just throw it out there and tell us to deal with it. I know full well is standing in front of the window and watching will change nothing. Nor will hiding in the basement make things go away. I have considered the idea but then there’s food and water and all the stuff that we need to make the day go by better. What if the roof leaks or window breaks or wild animals come around looking for food I guess I should go back to hiding my head. Put on some good music and listen. And if worse comes to worse add go outside and get blown around by the wind.

Stress levels were high here this morning. A mission critical kind of day. Early alarm to get the coffee out and attempts to silence the bird who lives in a box in our kitchen. Making sure that all the devices were ready including a web browser an inactive cell phone. No, we were not trying to score Taylor tickets. Nothing quite so interesting. This was an attempt to get seats on a shuttle bus in one of the national parks. And it required a lot more technology than I would have ever guessed. Remember, I was an innocent bystander in this whole event. The deal is as follows. Tickets are available in a 3 minute window. Very limited numbers. You have to have an account and when you do get through the maze you will be sent an authentification code because that is how the government rolls nowadays. If you miss your shot, you walk. And they have bears out there. Please do not be distracted by the wail of a  fog horn in the distance. Actually the process seems to have gone flawlessly and there are now tickets for two people on a bus this weekend. But is all this really necessary? Could they not simply use a larger bus or double up? After all, it works for students. I guess getting from point A to point B has become a game and somewhere civil servant is saying job well done. I think we should get trophies for participation in their game. Or at least a T-shirt. Imagine if this catches on and you have to go through all this to get a seat on your city bus. It could happen in a city near you.

If my parents have been less diligent I could be really unfriendly. Not nasty but sometimes. I have a person that calls here on a regular basis. I do not know the person and it is consistently a wrong number. I confirmed that the person being sought is not has not and will not be here but I am so tempted sometimes to turn the other cheek. Imagine the fun I could have if I was to produce a new life for the person being called. Something that goes beyond the question if the tea is ready, because it is not at least at this address. What if I was to asked the person calling to wait for a moment while I get the other person out of bed? Would it raise questions? Now again I am kind I will not resolve this situation by making it any worse. But I could. If you call someone consistently and the number is always a wrong number what does that suggest? Maybe you need to update your directory or your automatic calling feature or something else because although it’s nice to hear from someone I don’t know the T is not has not and will not be on. Sorry to disappoint. And as for the person being called who never receives these calls what do they assume? Has their friend simply gone to another part of the world? Will they ever meet up again? I am doing my best by suggesting that this is not the right answer to the call and saying that I know who the person is and that person is not here but how can I improve it. Impossible for me to re direct the call because if you keep calling my number you have a wrong number not me mine is fine.

This afternoon we added another appliance to our household menagerie. Technically a dehumidifier. It has been a long time since the last one. From what I remember almost three decades. We have changed locations and houses but moisture is a constant here in Canada. We’re not dealing with an overabundance of water. This is simply caution at a cost. Buying something like this requires a sense of space. How large is the area and will drainage be a problem. Probably not. This box will sit by itself at night and in the morning the levels in the collection bin will be checked. If there is too much water it will simply be dumped outside. No fuss, no mess. I keep thinking about all the other things we can do with it when it’s not in service. We can put it in the basement which is dry and see if it is really dry. We can put it in the garage which is dry and see if it’s really dry. We can place it outside which would be a silly move because we know how wet that area is. And we can loan it to anybody else that is having an emergency. Good neighbors and all that. Sure beats getting out the towels and wiping up after ourselves. In the other house we were built on stone and moisture was an issue. Here we’re up high with constant wind and I do not think that the appliance will be overworked. As I said, just another tool in the household menagerie.